James Weldon Johnson: Songwriter, a book written by Music Business Professor Don Cusic, has been released. Johnson was a noted Harlem Renaissance figure, author, poet (“God’s Trombones”) and Civil Rights leader during the 1920s and ’30s. Johnson was a popular Broadway songwriter, part of a team of writers, who wrote numerous hits like “Under the Bamboo Tree” and “Lift Every Voice.” The book collects Johnson’s early lyrics and tells the story of how he became a New York songwriter at the beginning of the 20th century.